Book V.
Chap. 19.attaining to honors through riches, inspires and cherishes industry[1], a thing extremely wanting in this kind of government.
V. Question.The fifth question is, in what kind of government Censors are necessary? My answer is, that they are necessary in a republic, where the principle of government is virtue. We must not imagine that criminal actions only are destructive of virtue; it is destroyed also by carelessness, by faults, by a certain coolness in the love of our country, by dangerous examples, by seeds of corruption, by whatever does not openly violate but elude the laws, by what does not subvert but weaken them; all this ought to fall under the inquiry and correction of the Censors.
We are surprized at the punishment of the Areopagite, for killing a sparrow, which, to escape the pursuit of a hawk, had taken shelter in his bosom. Surprized we are also that an Areopagite should put his son to death for pulling out the eyes of a little bird. But let us reflect that the question here does not relate to a criminal condemnation, but to a judgment on manners in a republic founded on manners.
In monarchies there should be no Censors; monarchies are founded on honor, and the nature of honor is to have the whole universe for its Censor. Every man that fails in this respect, is subject to the reproaches even of those who are void of honor.
Here the Censors would be spoilt by the very
- ↑ We see the laziness of Spain, where all public employments are given away.
